My House is Delicious

There's going to be nothing left if these #*!@ dogs don't stop chewing on it. I know I posted pictures of Bart's earlier destruction and now Winston is working on the stair railing. He's got his permanent teeth so has no excuse for this behavior.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we close on the new house next week. Of course we'll have no money left for the actual move but I guess we'll deal with that somehow. All my plans for new furniture are indefinitely on hold. I hate being strapped for cash (and where the heck did that expression come from, anyway?)

House Update

Still haven't closed on the new house. The assessor low-balled the value of our current home so we can't borrow as much against it as we'd anticipated. Our realtor talked to her about looking at some different comps., which she has agreed to, so now we're waiting to see if she will adjust accordingly. Won't hear anything until tomorrow at the earliest since today is a holiday. We have an extension until Sept. 14.

We can still afford the other house but just wouldn't have as much money left over for the new roof, fence, moving expenses, etc.

Re: the roof. The house was built in 1983 and our inspector found several places on the roof that needed repair. The additions that were built in 2003 looked fine so the whole roof did not need replacing. However, the materials wouldn't match and the roof would look odd so the current owners got an estimate for an entire new roof and knocked over half the cost of it off our purchase price. They agreed to fix anything else found by the inspection. The water quality test came back excellent (well water) and they had the septic tank pumped so it should be good for quite a while.

All this waiting has me frazzled. I can't seem to get motivated until we actually sign on the dotted line. Thank goodness for time spent at the barn. The horses demand my full attention and I can focus on them for the duration of the time I spend there and forget about the stress of waiting to move.

Are The Olympics Over Yet?

I wanted to see the equestrian events but never managed to get up in the middle of the night to watch them. Fortunately, all the horsey blogs I read have kept me updated. I only managed to catch bits and pieces of marathon running (boring) and women's individual vaulting. Yahoo news did a pictorial of all the sour looks on silver medalists faces. Don't authority figures teach good sportsmanship any more? Now I know these athletes are "in it to win it" but doesn't the fact that they made it to the Olympics count for something? Take pride in that and accept your loss with grace. And please, please, please let this be Bob Costas' last gig at the Olympics. I got tired of changing the channel every time I saw his face.

So, it looks like we're moving. We saw the house I mentioned in my last entry on the following Saturday, came back to Anchorage and made an offer and it was accepted the next day. We had the home inspection done yesterday and I like the house even better on the second viewing.

I've started packing up boxes (hate) and can't wait to sign the final paperwork. There are excellent Internet sites with tips on moving and one advises to try to downsize by a third. I chucked a bunch of magazines into the recycling this week and even threw in my old yearbooks. I never looked at the darn things and they weighed a ton. Sure hope we can get settled into the new place before the snow flies.

It's A Beautiful Morning

...and now I have the Young Rascals echoing through my head. Hope they go away soon. I can't believe that the sun is shining after so many gloomy days. We had sun last Thursday also. I headed off to a horse show after my grooming stint and although I had remembered to put sunscreen on my face, forgot to apply any to my neck and got a slight sunburn on one side.

This was the first time I actually got to witness any drama at a horse show. One of the participants won a couple of blue ribbons but exited the ring in tears. Now I happen to know that she is leaving for college soon so I'm thinking she's crying because this may be the last time she shows the horse for awhile or maybe she's going to sell it or something. Oh heck no - turns out she got yelled at by her trainer for wasting time canoodling with her boyfriend when she was supposed to be getting the horse ready. So much for my theory.

Found a house I liked last night online so have contacted our real estate agent about setting up a viewing. It seems perfect in every way so I'm sure there must be something wrong with it. I vacillate between resigning that we'll never move and should just fix up the house we're in and then getting excited over an MLS listing. Earlier in the day I had been researching landscaping companies because we need a new retaining wall and I am curious how much it would cost to replace our graveled area with paving stones.

Time to head for the barn. Hope my real estate agent sends an email for me to read by the time I get home.

I Like It

Long Sleeved Summer

With apologies to the rest of the nation, Anchorage is having the coldest July on record

Friday the 13th

Happy Birthday to me. I was awakened by a telephone call from my BFF this morning with the opening, "Welcome to old age." We both turned 60 this year. Medicare is right around the corner. Aggravates me no end that its mandatory when I already have perfectly good health insurance. Of course that may all come to a screeching halt when certain legislation goes into effect.

We're not planning any special activities. I've got some bananas in the freezer as I want to try a banana ice cream recipe that I found on-line. I'm taking a batch of these to the barn today:



I purchased them from Becky on etsy, who is not limited to horses but said they are her most popular.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85770685/equestrian-lover-cookies

I bought a book entitled, "Still Riding at 80" that I'm going to read for inspiration one of these days. Right now I'm in the middle of reading a fantasy series. Also have an exercise book that one of the ladies at the barn claims changed her life. I managed to get through half of the exercises. They're only supposed to take 15 minutes but I have to read and re-read each exercise, execute it, then start again with the next one. I'm such a quitter.

Saw Bart chasing something across the yard this morning that turned out to be a baby blue jay. The adult birds were raising a racket. Fortunately, my husband was able to chase Bart off before he did any harm. (Note to self: Must work on obedience training and have both dogs master the "Come" command)